This invention relates to a fiber optic communications system, and more particularly, to apparatus for monitoring the fiber optic link.
Over the past few years, a great deal of effort has been directed toward the development of a suitably reliable method for monitoring optical fiber communications. Although many of these techniques have shown promise, they are subject to limitations. Some of these limitations are complex fiber optic transceiver design, high cost fiber/cable designs, and only moderate link lengths.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a continuously monitored communications link in a point-to-point configuration.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such apparatus which does not require any special transmitter or receiver configurations and conventional fiber and cable designs may be employed.
It is yet another object of the present invention not only to detect cable plant faults, but also, to identify the severity as well as the location of a perturbation.
Yet another object of the invention is fiber optic link monitoring in which system operational parameter changes are accommodated.